Ikea Names Contractor for Mega Project

BURBANK, CA—It’s officially happening. Ikea has tapped contractor VCC to build its planned retaildevelopment in Burbank, less than a mile from its current location. At 456,000 square feet, the new store will be a larger replacement for its current Burbank retail store, which is the furniture retailer’s oldest store in the Western US. Pending entitlements and approvals, the project will break ground in the fall 2015 and will open in spring 2017.

Located at 850 San Fernando Blvd., the 456,000-square-foot development will sit on 22 acres with 1,700 parking spaces, making it one of the largest Ikea stores in the nation. By comparison, the current Burbank location sits on 6.4 acres and measures 242,000 square feet. The new store will have 50 inspirational room-settings, three model home interiors, and a larger Swedish restaurant. It will also be child friendly with a Children’s Ikea showroom, a supervised children’s play area and baby-care rooms. Just like the current store, the new Ikea will have a solar photovoltaic array on its roof, or something similar, to generate clean power, a trademark of the company. It will house 400 workers from the original store, and will generate even more sales revenue for the city and local schools.